1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to nut holding devices that are mounted to a ratcheting tool for holding a nut after loosening.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional socket of, e.g., a ratchet wrench cannot hold a nut received therein. More specifically, the nut will be left on the site after it has been loosened. Manual removal of the nut is required and inadvertent loss of the nut often occurs. This problem is aggravated when the nut is disposed in a deep hole.
FIGS. 23 and 24 of the drawings illustrate a conventional nut holding member 24' received in a socket 20'. The inner periphery of the socket 20' includes two longitudinal grooves 221' and an annular groove 222' adjacent to an open end of the socket 20'. The nut holding member 24' is substantially U-shaped having two limbs 241' received in the longitudinal grooves 221 , respectively. One of the limbs 241' includes two arcuate portions 242' for retaining a nut 25' (FIG. 25). A distal end of the nut holding member 24' includes a retainer element 244' received in the annular groove 222' for retaining the nut 25' in the socket 20'. Nevertheless, the holding effect of the nut holding member 24' is found unsatisfactory since the nut 25' is held at only two sides thereof by two limbs 241' (FIG. 25). Thus, the nut 25' still tends to fall from the socket 20'. In addition, the U-shaped configuration of the nut holding member 24' is apt to deform as a result of expansion and thus might be disengaged from the longitudinal grooves 221'. As a result, positioning of the nut holding member 24' only relies upon the retainer element 244' in the annular groove 222' and thus is unreliable. This adversely affects the holding effect. If the holding force is designed to be relatively large for holding the nut, removal of the nut will be a problem after loosening of the nut. In actual use, the nut might be stuck deeply inside the socket such that the user has to remove the nut by tweezers or the like. Furthermore, it is difficult to machine the longitudinal grooves 221' and the annular groove 222' in the inner periphery of the socket 20', especially for those sockets 20' having an inner diameter smaller than 10 mm. A further drawback is that the nut holding member 24' cannot be applied to the currently available sockets without provision of the grooves 221' and 222'. Therefore, a set of sockets containing all sizes must be manufactured so as to form the grooves 221' and 222'. This results in an additional cost to the manufacturers and the users.
Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/293,034 filed on Apr. 16, 1999 proposes nut holding devices to solve the above problems.
The present invention is intended to provide nut holding devices that may eject the nut after the nut is disengaged from the bolt.